


We Should Start Again

by sunspot (unavoidedcrisis)



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Kissing, Meat-Eating Plants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-12 06:28:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29006088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unavoidedcrisis/pseuds/sunspot
Summary: Lace and Bram need to start over, now, and not only because he just called her "bite sized."
Relationships: Lace Harding/Bram Kenric
Comments: 4
Kudos: 7
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	We Should Start Again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jammerific](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jammerific/gifts).



When Lace kissed Bram for the first time, he gasped against her mouth and dropped the book and the sheaf of papers he was holding. Predictably, they scattered everywhere and Bram broke away immediately to chase them. Lace rolled her eyes, cursing herself for bad timing and no forethought.

When he returned, papers held tightly under one arm, he kissed her back, but he's obviously rattled. 

"I was working up the nerve to do that myself," he admitted, pulling away. 

"I know," Lace said, although she didn't. Her heart was thumping in her chest, brain swimming with affection and awkwardness in equal measure. 

"I'm glad you made the effort. Who knows when I would have," he said, still clutching his work to his chest and barely able to look at her. 

She bit her lip, uncertain. "I'm glad too."

"Well… good night," Bram said, before leaving too fast for Lace to say anything else.

He avoided her after that. It stung, more than a little, but Lace was busy with a hundred other things and she didn't have time to fret about _love_.

Until one night about two weeks after the kiss, she was alone in her tent, and had a few uninterrupted minutes to unwind. She heard Bram's laughter from somewhere nearby and, yeah, that felt bad.

She resolved to say something the next chance she got. To clear the air, to apologize if she needed to. Maybe she misread the signals.

Her chance came a few days later. "Bram, do you have a moment to speak to me?"

"Watch out!" he said, eyes going wide with alarm. He reached from the knife hanging from his belt and flung it in one smooth motion, smoother than anything Lace had seen him do before. Then he grabbed Lace and yanked her forward by the shoulders. She lurched forward into him and they both ended up sprawled -- Bram on the ground, Lace across his midsection. That was the Bram she recognized.

A dazed moment or two later, Lace opened her eyes and found herself staring right into his.

"What happened?" she asked, sitting up quickly and rubbing her knees and elbows, all the points that struck the ground.

He motioned to the place where she'd just been standing. It looked like something, or maybe someone, had exploded there. Piles of vegetation, covered in slime, chunks of what look suspiciously like bone, black, viscous sludge puddled on the ground. Bram's knife lay among the mess.

Lace was horrified.

"What in the…"

"Indeed," said Bram. He stood and offered a hand, pulling her to her feet with surprising strength. "You weren't with the group that discovered the first one. The most incredible meat eating plant, the size of a druffalo."

"Are you… insane?" she asked. It wasn't the most tactful way to phrase it. She tried to clarify. "In what world is that _incredible?_ "

"It's incredibly interesting. Academically, I mean," he said defensively. "But I take your point. Probably less interesting at your height; you're about bite-sized."

Lace scoffed. "Wow. And to think, I was going to thank you."

Bram turned magenta. "Miss Harding, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean…"

Lace fixed him with a pointed look. "Do you want to start again?"

He nodded fervently. "Hello, Miss Harding, my name is Bram Kenric, I want to thank you so much for agreeing to come out here."

In spite of herself, Lace laughed. "I didn't mean _start over_ start over."

"I fear..." he said, picking his words carefully. "I fear I've made many mistakes, not just this afternoon. Ever since you kissed me, I've only mucked things up."

He looked down, but must have caught sight of the muck all over her legs, so he looked back up. Lace met his eyes and smiled. 

"Oh. Well. I don't think so… Maybe a little. So, hello, Bram, it's good to meet you."

He smiled like she was water and he was the desert.

"I would very much like to spend our time in this place getting to know you better," he said.

Lace kissed him again, and this time, everything fit together right, it wasn't over too fast, no dwarf-eating plants descended on them, and he smiled against her mouth. 

"Yes, that's a start," he said. "Now, would you care to accompany me down to the water? We can clean up this… mess and I can show you something interesting."

Lace was nearly certain he was using a different definition of the word 'interesting' again, but he held out his arm, so gentlemanly, and beamed when she took it.

"Show me something interesting then. As long as it won't eat me."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my beta reader and thanks to Lace Harding, for being herself. Happy Chocolate Box!


End file.
